SEO News and Commentary -

Google in the News

Google recently refused to give the US Federal Government access to search data. The Bush administration wants to know how often computer users search for pornography on the Web and expect the search engines to comply with any request. Yahoo and MSN immediately coughed up their data. You can learn more about it here.

Paid Search Engine Marketing Growing Sharply

The paid search industry estimated $10 billion globally in 2005, is expected to increase in expenditure 41 percent in 2006. Google is Google is expected to improve its net revenues by more than 58 percent during the year, according to a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray.

Google Revolutionalizing Advertising?

It's hard to say no considering how successful they've been so far. Their stock still hovers around $400 a share and many see it rising again after the current spate of legal battles are cleared up. They're apparently considering forays into TV and Radio. If Google can gain exposure on TV, it would be revolutionary. However, mainstream television broadcasters such as Cable companies and the big networks may want to put their own product into place rather than giving Google one more medium to gobble up.

No one does it like Google though, so expect this company to gain significantly more advertising marketshare in the next ten years. If your company doesn't recognize how powerful and effective Google is at reaching targeted customers, you need to read more about them.

Trustrank

Why is so their little knowledge of Google Trustrank? Google's recent patent included a Trustrank algorithm factor. Many commentators have said it was much ado about nothing, but that's not the case. Google needs a trust element in their algorithm. When the big Web directories were demoted in the algorithm, it left the ranking results open to manipulation by optimizers with lots of web sites at their disposal or those who controlled high pagerank sites. Without human reviews of web sites, Google felt that a trust factor could be created via the algorithm itself and replace the human review factor for credibility. There are some high pagerank sites that are industry portals (authority sites) and these sites do have "credible links" pointing to them.

It's not a perfect solution however. Some people refer to "authority site spam" as causing poor and stale results. Too much reliance on authority sites can cause these sites to be open to monetary influence. Paid text link ads is one such phenomena occurring on these sites as they take advantage of Google's dependence on them.

Google update- Why does it take so long?

Some viewers believe Google updates happen regularly every 3 to 4 months, however there is no proof of the exact dates. It is a decision Google engineers make when they feel it is the right time. That time just happened. The timing of the update is generally thought to be after Google has completed some extensive spidering and filtering of web pages. You might say they weed through billions of pages to find the best.

They delay in updates allows Google to filter out spam and delay the reward of paid links. At times it can very difficult to move your rankings upward simply with more links or site modifications. Google's also shown some erratic changes in rankings suggesting they may be playing with the algorithm to frustrate SEOs and Webmasters.

The delay then is an important factor in managing spammers and search engine optimization firms who want to promote their client's rankings and presence. It is felt by most that hiring an SEO to perform optimization on your site is an unfair advantage in itself. When you add to that the phenomenon of paid link placement, and network linking and you can see how Google might be trying to keep their index out of the sole control of wealthy corporations and publishers.

An capable, skilledSEO company such as Bay Street SEO is perhaps the only hope for smaller companies wishing to gain access to the very well qualified customers that Google can deliver.

Google Marketshare Up Again

Just as hopes for search engine diversification were spawning,  a ComScore Media Metrix survey reveals Google's non-U.S. market share at 58% in October, 2004. It's US share is significantly less however, most Web site stats show Google delivers 65 to 80% of all search engine referals to a Web site. This underscores the importance of a high Google ranking.

Google and Yahoo Fight Blog Spam

Google and Yahoo have met with several Internet marketing firms to develop a way to filter out blog spam. Blog owners have been using comments inside blog posts to boost the rankings of Web sites. This tactic has negatively affected the quality of search results and they're taking action on what will be a tough problem to solve. So far they've discussed meta tags that would tell search engine robots to ignore the links. This could work if Google and Yahoo implement a policy of accepting blogs only after the owners have agreed not to spam.

If Google is hoping for voluntary compliance, it is going to be in for a battle.

The new MSN search engine has been launched and is producing impressive Google-like results. Yes, the beta was launched before, but you can't blame MSN for stuttering when faced with competing with Google and Yahoo. It looks like they're heading in the right direction.

Hallelujah,Google has finally updated the Pagerank of the all the sites in the index as of about two weeks ago. Despite that, rankings have not changed yet. Experts agree that PR is one update behind. Web site owners and SEO companies alike still will have to wait and hope for higher Google rankings.

Google's Algorithm is composed of two main and independent components: Pagerank which is a mathematical evaluation of a site's importance and link reputation which is determined by analyzing links and Web site content. How Google calculates keyword rankings using these factors is extremely complex.

Beginning last fall, Google clamped down on search engine spammers and those buying links on other sites for the purpose of improving rankings. Their new system also retards or prevents rewards for search engine optimization efforts. Filters are now applied to their database to identify and apply demerit to those using aggressive optimization practices.

Those making changes to their sites or adding new content found that Google recognize or give the new content a ranking it may have deserved. Therefore, anyone trying to gain quick results in the Google index, found themselves unable to achieve high rankings on popular keyword phrases. This practice was highly efficient at thwarting spammers and SEO companies.

Advice on SEO Companies and their Services

If you're choosing a new SEO company to provide services on your Web site, consider how they will achieve strong visibility. Can they create and integrate precise keyword usage in your pages in a way that your visitors will respond to, and keep your site effective for your customers coming from paid search ads?

If not, their efforts will actually cannibalize revenue achieved from your other marketing efforts. Effective SEO is a very complex task when a company has more than one product or service type to promote. Given the competitiveness of the search engine listings, you need all of your Web resources focused to beat your competitors, who after all, may be outspending you 4 to 1.

This latest event at the Googleplex doesn't mean that future SEO-driven changes on your site won't be delayed indefinitely. Google will certainly keep the pressure on SEO companies trying to manipulate search engine results. There are more tough tasks ahead. Is your SEO provider up to the challenge?

Google gains Marketshare. According to Nielsen NetRatings Search Engine Ratings Google's marketshare has grown to almost 40% while Yahoo's and MSN's markeshare has slipped to about 30%. In another study done by Vividence, Google was named as the primary search engine for 89% of respondents. US at home and at work Internet usage has grown to 151 Million people. That's very good news for the upcoming Google IPO launch.

Google Adwords however is not faring as well as it was found to be lacking in advertising awareness and ad clickthroughs. Google placed fifth behind Ask Jeeves, Lycos, MSN and Yahoo in clickthrough rates.

Yahoo Buys Shopping Search Engine Kelcoo.com for $575 Million

Paris-based Kelcoo, featured in our case study of shopping search engines has been acquired by Yahoo.com in what is believed to be part of Yahoo's European expansion goals. Kelkoo is one of the top European shopping sites competing for a market that is expected to see strong growth in the next 5 years.

Yahoo launches its New Search Engine

Yahoo search now has its own search engine with a unique indexing algorithm. The algorithm doesn't use Inktomi results solely. Instead a new robot called Yahoo Slurp is crawling the net and Yahoo's engineers are providing the indexing criteria. This change on affects the US search results. Google continues to provide other search services for Yahoo.

Search Engine Marketing Growth

EMarketer reports that spending growth on paid search advertising in the US rose above $2 billion last year, up 123% from $923 million in 2002. They suggest growth will slow this year yet still rise more 23%, to over $2.5 billion. Next year they expect spending will rise to $3 billion and then growth will once again rise sharply for the rest of the decade.

News Bytes

New research by Direct Marketers suggests searchers want relevant and credible results and rate brand and site usability as minor factors in their search for products and services. From the report: "The push from users for more relevant results comes as they grow more sophisticated in their searches. OneStat.com recently reported that more searchers are using multiple-word queries."

Search Engine Referals Nearly Double Worldwide - According to Webside Story, search engine referals have grown over 6% since last year.

BusinessWeek commentary on Froogle is not as glowing as my own view of the Froogle product search miracle.

Yahoo stock has shown strong growth since September.

Shoppers are finding savings in product search engines.

Search Engine Books

Looking for an edge for your business in gaining search engine visibility. Read these informative search engine books.

Google News: Is Googledance Dead? Googlebot is doing more frequent spidering and the results are being indexed more quickly. However, major monthly updates are still being conducted. This involves the renowned "post-processing" SEOs have come to fear.

The Google toolbar is doing an excellent job of blocking those pesky pop-ups we all hate. However, it is experiencing problems. For those behind proxy servers, it appears to be causing browser problems. You may not see your site's PageRank on the toolbar but you can always learn more about improving Google Rank here.

Choose Bay Street SEO as your prefered search engine optimization company. The results will impress you.  In the Boston Massachusetts area? Call the top Boston Search Engine Optimization firm in Massachusetts and New England region. BIG has the complete design/branding/search engine optimization package you can't get anywhere else.